The Willow Wood Relief Society: Mitten Strings to God / 24th of July family night kids activity

With the 24th of July upcoming, here is

a fun idea for Family Night

1st - Discuss what Pioneer Day is all about:

The 24^th of July was Pioneer Day, a state holiday in Utah that honors the day in 1847 that the Mormon pioneers first entered the Salt Lake Valley.

Mormon's were pushed out of their homes and had to find a new place where they could live safely and practice their religion.

They packed up just a few of their belongings in hand carts and headed on the long journey west.

2nd - Read or listen to a Pioneer story.

Click below to find some

Pioneer Stories

3rd - Sing or,

Watch this video with Mormon Tab singing

Click below

Come, Come, Ye Saints

4th - Make these cute family night treats

approx. 1 ½ graham cracker sheets
2 pretzel sticks
melted chocolate (below)
4 Keebler Fudge Shoppe Mini Fudge Stripes cookies
frosting (below)
2 Barnums Animal Cookies
2 marshmallows
1 Teddy Graham
1 Twizzlers Pull-n-Peel String

One thing I’ve learned through lots of trial and error (and even more messes) is that, when you have kids — especially young ones — helping you in the kitchen, prep work is your friend. So before you invite your child to come help you:

Set aside one of your graham cracker sheets. Break the remaining one into quarters. Save one of those quarters. Take two more and cut them in half lengthwise with a very sharp, not serrated knife (follow the dots!). Set aside two of those, then take one and cut it in half widthwise with the same knife. You should have a quarter, two eighths, and a sixteenth:
Use your knife to trim your pretzel sticks to less than a half inch longer on each side than the width of your quartered graham cracker.
Melt about ½ cup (or less, depending on how many of these you plan to make) of chocolate chips with just a touch of oil in a small bowl in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir until it’s smooth. Then spoon it into a piping bag or small Ziploc bag with a corner cut off.
Place some wax paper on a small flat surface (I used the inside of a large, shallow Snap-Lock container). Take the cookies you’ll be using and place them face-down on the wax paper (the solid chocolate side should be facing you). Rotate the tip of your knife in the center circle to scrape out the excess chocolate and widen the hole.
Squeeze some chocolate into the holes of half of the cookies, then place the end of a pretzel stick into the chocolate so that it stands up.
Once you’ve assembled all of them, stick the whole container in the freezer to set up.
Now make your frosting. I whipped a ½ stick of softened butter, then beat in 1 cup powdered sugar, ¼ tsp. clear vanilla, a heaping teaspoon of meringue powder, and just enough half-and-half to make it a spreadable consistency. You can use the premade kind too; just make sure that you mix in meringue powder so that it sets and holds everything together. Scoop the frosting into another piping bag or Ziploc bag with a corner snipped off.
Pull your container of half-axles out of the freezer. Place the rest of your cookies face-down on the paper, then squeeze the chocolate into the holes & very carefully place the other end of your pretzel sticks into the hole to make a whole axle. Put them back in the freezer until you’re ready for them.
Okay. Now you can invite the kids to come help.
Pull out some of your animal crackers. Some face left and some face right. Let your child choose one of each. This way the detail on both cookies can face out when they’re “harnessed” to the wagon. Admittedly, giraffes, camels, and lions aren’t the most historically accurate…
Grab your full graham cracker sheet and two axles. Pipe some frosting to the bottom of each wheel of your axle, then stick it to one end of the sheet. Do the same thing with the other axle, positioning it a little over an inch in front of the first one. Pipe a line of frosting across the top of the pretzel sticks and lay your quarter graham cracker on top.
Create “walls” on the back and sides of your wagon with your eighth and sixteenth graham cracker. Pipe a line of frosting on the bottom of each one, as well as the corners where they meet. Bet you never thought you’d get to use your mad Gingerbread House skills in the middle of July!
Pipe a little frosting on the “feet” of your animal crackers, then stand them up at the front of your graham cracker sheet.
Now take your marshmallows and stick them together end to end with a dot of frosting. Pipe the tops of your “walls” and stick the marshmallows on top.
Put a big glob of frosting on the front of the wagon in front of the marshmallows. Stand the Teddy Graham on top of the glob so he’s “driving.”
You’re almost done! Now just put dots of frosting on the tops of the wagon walls near the Teddy’s hands, and very carefully add a dot of frosting to the outside of each animal. Carefully loop your Twizzlers string around to make reins (you’ll need to trim off about 1.5 inches with your thumbnail) with an end in each one of Teddy’s hands. Ta da!